Brainy Krugman can’t catch a clue when the answer is: Israel lobby

This one’s not too hard to follow. Here’s Tom Shales attacking Christiane Amanpour as the choice to host "This Week" on ABC because, gulp, she’s considered critical of Israel. Shales is pretty explicit about this. Notice the automatic gravitas he grants a pro-Israel website: 

Supporters of Israel have more than once charged Amanpour with bias against that country and its policies. A Web site devoted to criticism of Amanpour is titled, with less than a modicum of subtlety, "Christiane Amanpour’s Outright Bias Against Israel Must Stop," available via Facebook.

Now here’s Danny Shea at Huffpo picking up the Israel angle in the opposition to Amanpour.

OK. And now here’s Amanpour’s associate, Paul Krugman, rising to Amanpour’s defense, "Hating on Christiane Amanpour." Good for you, Krugman!

Wait, a second, why are people hating on Amanpour? Krugman resorts to mystification:

Weird attack from Tom Shales, who’s supposed to be a TV reviewer, on the choice of Christiane Amanpour as the new host of “This Week”. I have a stake in all this, since I’m a regular on the show. But even if I weren’t, I think I’d see this attack as distinctly off…I don’t really understand what’s going on here.

Krugman, do you really not understand what’s going on here? Are you being sincere? 

Do you think it’s possible to fight a beast if you won’t say what that beast is?

(Put another way, do you think it’s possible to effectively oppose the Iraq war if you mystify one of the primary causes of that war– as just about everyone in the liberal MSM has done, and probably Krugman too?)

And wouldn’t all readers be better served if Jewish writers actually spoke openly about the strains over Zionism inside the establishment media?

Update. Hat/tip to Ali Abunimah, who gets at the rub better than I do:

It’s odd that Krugman — who I generally admire — should profess to be baffled by Shales’ criticism of Amanpour when Shales makes it pretty clear this is all about Israel and her ‘alleged’ criticism of it. Krugman must know what’s up because he himself has been studiously silent about Palestine/Israel even when he’s been very outspoken about Iraq and other issues beyond his economics brief. I do recall a couple of occasions, many years ago, that Krugman made mild criticisms of Israel. Perhaps that taught him a lesson to stick to his brief?